All In All, Things Are Pretty Good

The Field Report

With the central Illinois prairie covered with snow, Trent sat down in his warm office to look back and ahead. 2018 “was a decent year, but not a record-breaker. We had good weather and good production, but the markets were not friendly.” Trent continued by observing that the federal government shutdown has stopped USDA crop reports so the markets have no current information about final yield figures, export sales, status of various inventories, and similar information which ordinarily moves the market. Without the current reports, the markets are in a holding pattern, unsure of direction.

August 2015 Farm Report

Trent Brandenburg,just back from a family summer vacation, looked over his fields and said, “It’s been a strange year. All in all, things are pretty good.”

Trent sees good crops. He knows there will be some damage from ponding in mid-field that is only visible from the combine cab. The foliage diseases showing up on some corn fields are not serious so far for Trent. There is some on lower leaves, below the ears, but the sun doesn’t get that far down the plant so the net effect is small. Some varieties are more susceptible than others. Trent does not see enough crop damage, so far, to justify the cost of spraying.

“Beans are incredibly tall,” Trent observed,”they’re shoulder-high.” Trent sees a possibility of some harvest challenge if the plants start falling over from adverse weather conditions such as wind.